The present invention relates to automatic clothes washers of the vertical axis type and, more particularly, to an adjustable agitation system for use in such washers.
In automatic clothes washing machines it is desirable to provide for selectively varying the energy input of the agitator to the wash fluid and the clothes contained in the fluid. Generally, in the past this has been done by changing the speed of the input to the transmission and agitator. For example, in some commercially available washing machines from General Electric Company, assignee of the present invention, a multi-speed clutch is connected between a single speed motor and the transmission of the washing machine. By selectively energizing the clutch, the input speed of the transmission and thus the oscillation speed of the agitator is selectively varied. In other commercially available washing machines, variation in the speed of the agitator is obtained by utilizing a multi-speed drive motor. Both such approaches are relatively expensive and require complicated control circuitry for selecting the desired input speed. Other commercially available washing machines have multiple agitators. Generally a "regular" agitator is nested over a "gentle" agitator. Normally the "regular" agitator effects the washing. When the "regular" agitator is removed from the machine, washing is effected by the "gentle" agitator. Since the "gentle" agitator is smaller, less energy is imparted to the fabrics being washed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved agitation system for a clothes washing machine.
It is another object of this invention to provide such a system wherein the energy input is varied by selectively varying the length of the arc through which the agitator oscillates.